Abortion care programme for students launches in summer

By:
Kelly Brendel

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is launching a programme to raise awareness of abortion care and women’s reproductive health among medical students and trainee doctors.

The initiative has been introduced by BPAS in response to what Patricia Lohr, BPAS’s medical director, identifies as the “large numbers of students and trainees going through [medical school and training] without being exposed to abortion care services.”

Students and trainees participating in BPAS’s Reproductive Health Externships will have the opportunity to spend two weeks observing the work in their London based Streatham and Richmond clinics. The externship is meant to provide an insight into every stage of patient care from discussing pregnancy options, to medical assessment and ultrasound, consenting for treatment, and abortion procedures.

Lohr argues that undergraduate medical education typically approaches abortion as an ethical issue, while neglecting to cover the clinical aspects that are part of its care. This omission in